Re: Taking
the biscuit

: I'm
sure that this has come up before, but why does something that is an extreme,
and more often the worst of all cases, "just take the biscuit"?

Here in the
US we would say "take the cake" meaning to take first prize or be judged the winner.
The
origin of these sayings almost certainly lies in childhood contests where the
winner's prize is a cake or biscuit, but modern use of the terms is almost exclusively
ironic -- someone "takes the cake" when their conduct is shocking, surprising,
or sets a new low in ethics.